On August 21, the 9th Bus Market Workshop, organized by the Bus Branch of the China Highway & Transportation Society (CHTS) and undertaken by Yuchai, was held in Yulin, Guangxi. Zou Huxiang, council chairman of the Bus Branch of CHTS; Yao Mingde, former president of the China Road Transport Association; She Zhenqing, deputy secretary-general of the Bus Branch of CHTS; as well as relevant staff of Yuchai sized up the situation of Chinas bus market.

In the first half of 2012, Chinas bus market continued to grow by a certain margin, but segments differed in performance with coaches growing fast, gas buses and school buses growing dramatically and public buses performing fairly. In the first half, 110,000 buses were sold, a slight increase of 6.39 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, but the figure will put heavy pressure on the performance of the bus market in the second half as growth slows down, Zou said, adding, The school bus policies and tax policies will boost the growth of the bus market this year, the Industrial Development Plan of Energy-conserving and New Energy Vehicles (2012-2020) has been promulgated, electric buses and plug-in hybrid buses will benefit from the plan from 2012 to 2020, and national policies will play a vital role in promoting the development of the bus industry and the prosperity of the bus market.

According to the situation this year, the prediction of a year-on-year increase of 12 percent in bus sales at the end of last year is obviously too high, and the market is not optimistic. Therefore this years sales growth will be reduced to eight percent, or some 20,000 units.

(Zhou Qingwen/China Automotive News)